Illinois Senator, and presidential candidate, Barack Obama outlined his plan for Iraq today, as well as for a timetable for withdrawing the troops in an editorial for The New York Times. Obama says he is working on a "phased redeployment of combat troops," and removing all but a "residual force" by summer, 2010.

And, as we now know, President Kennedy also had a plan, an exit strategy that included the withdrawal of 1,000 advisors in December, 1963, and a complete withdrawal of ground forces in Vietnam by the end of 1965.

Kennedy not only had a plan, he had a vision. What is the difference between a plan and a vision? Those who have a plan see a fence and try to find a way to climb over it. Those with vision see over the fence to the other side.

There can be no question, from his State of the Union Address in January, 1963, that JFK had a vision: "Our commitment to national safety is not a commitment to expand our military establishment indefinitely. We do not dismiss disarmament as merely an idle dream. For we believe that, in the end, it is the only way to assure the security of all without impairing the interest of any. Nor do we mistake honorable negotiation for appeasement. While we shall never weary in the defense of freedom, neither shall we ever abandon the pursuit of peace."

Senator Obama now says his plan for ending the Iraq war is
"essential" in order to accomplish "broader strategic goals" in places
like Afghanistan and Pakistan. We gather from this that he doesn't plan
to end the "war on terror," merely the war on Iraq. He would simply
move the estimated 140,000 troops, over time, from the battlefield in
Iraq to Afghanistan without ever addressing "the multiplication of
awesome weapons beyond all rational need" about which JFK warned, or
Kennedy's calls for "new checks on surprise or accidental attack, and,
ultimately, general and complete disarmament."

Indeed, there are
some who might say that JFK had a vision, and Barack Obama has a plan.
There are some who call themselves progressives, and condemn the
Illinois senator for his flexibility, and willingness to adjust his
plans depending on conditions on the ground. But, what would they say
were they to learn that President Kennedy, who also had a plan for
phased withdrawal from Vietnam by the end of 1965, which was not
publicized, was, like Obama's, subject to conditions on the ground.

An
exit strategy in Vietnam was only one thing JFK envisoned. Weeks before
he was assassinated, should he, and we, have had the good fortune to
see his second term, Kennedy was laying the groundwork for an end to
the Cold War — by approaching John K. Galbraith to serve as ambassador
to Russia, and working toward ending the trade embargo on Cuba.

But,
there are others who might think of themselves as visionaries, too, but
who are militarists, and would have us believe that a strong defense is
in the best interest of national security, those like President George
W. Bush, and Sen. McCain, who have all but abandoned Kennedy's dream of
"complete and total disarmament," and "pursuit of peace" in favor of a
missile defense shield infrastructure in Europe. Yes, those who would
agree with the Arizona senator, and former First Lady, Hillary Clinton,
that Obama is "naive" for thinking he can dialogue with our adversaries
rather than drive them into bomb shelters. But, beware of those who
come to the table with only a fist and a dare.

Ostensibly, Sen.
McCain isn't familiar with the findings of a scientific group, back in
2004, that multibillion dollar anti-ballistic military shields are
"incapable of shooting down any incoming warheads," and are little more
than placebos against perceived threats from Iran, and North Korea
which could only provoke more hubris from commanders-in-chief who think
they're impervious from harm.

Sen. McCain, and other interested
parties, might wish to note that Barack Obama isn't only willing to
talk — he's willing to talk to us, the people. What was the last op-ed
piece you read by Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, or Dick
Cheney? Do we want four more years of a glorified covert operation, or
transparency — the kind of transparency that will figure out a way to
resurrect the thousands, arguably millions, of conveniently disappeared
White House e-mails that, when revealed, will doubtless incriminate
those highest in command.

Without question, JFK would prefer
Obama's plan to contain any threat from Tehran using diplomacy and
tighter economic sanctions to a continuation of the Defense heavy
foreign policy of the Bush years. After all, last week's signing of a
pact that will use the Czech Republic as a construction site for part
of a missile shield has only elicited the threat of military response
from Russia, and if McCain prevails in his quest for the presidency,
the Bush legacy may well be a return to the days of the Cold War.

Kennedy
had vision — he wanted to be the first to land a man on the moon, live
in a world in which global competition didn't lead to global danger
and, more importantly, he wanted us to turn our energies "to the great
unfinished tasks of our own people." But, over the past forty-five
years, we've seen that being a visionary is not necessarily a good
thing. There are nightmare visions, not just honorific ones.

We,
as a nation, are still struggling to survive the dark vision of Richard
Nixon whose efforts to sabotage our republic, and our elections, have
been born again in the administration of George W. Bush, a presidency
that puts immunity from prosecution for contractors, and service
members, in Iraq on the table as a bargaining chip in negotiations for
troop withdrawal, and one that has managed to get Congress to go along
with giving retroactive immunity to telecommunication companies who
broke privacy laws by warrantless surveillance of our phone calls and
e-mails. We have seen unprecedented subrogation of the separation of
powers.

And there have been other "visionaries," or glorified
strategists, like Newt Gingrich whose "Contract for America" was a
blueprint for the divisiveness, and economic inequities, we experience
today, and still others like Oliver North, George W. Bush, Dick Cheney,
and now John McCain, who think that they have a divine right to infest
us with their neo-Conservative agenda, and who would lead us to the
brink of nuclear disaster, all the while telling us it's a war against
Islamo-fascism, when we know too well that theirs is a war on diversity
and dissent. Save us from these so-called visionaries who use the
American flag as a prophylactic, who operate in secrecy while working
to divest us of our voice, and our future.

So, to have a senator
who envisons a country that does not consist of red states and blue
states, but one that is united, who strives to articulate a specific
course after eight years of an orgy of abstractions, one who wants to
form a coalition of those on opposite sides of an issue may not work
for some designer progressives, but may, after all, work for the
country.

And, to those who warn about a unitary executive, and
abuse of power, consider that we are the ones who vest, and imbue, the
president with supernatural powers, and then complain when the
executive branch, like a runaway train, attempts to secede from
government. We are the ones who can't get enough of Camelot, and
celebrity presidencies, while stripping the vision like an abandoned
Ford Explorer.

In the end, a president is only as effective, or
powerful, as Congress and the Supreme Court allows him to be. If we
have a White House on steroids, we have only ourselves to blame for
forgetting to collaborate on governing.

Visions and Plans
There know how to be no inquiry as of his position of the combination Address in January, 1963, that JFK had a hallucination: that our pledge to countrywide safety is not a promise to make bigger our military institution until further notice. We do not allow going disarmament as only an inactive daydream. For we deem that in the end it is the merely means to guarantee the safety of all without impair the curiosity of any. Nor do us mistake honorable negotiation for appeasement. While we shall never weary in the protection of freedom in addition to neither. shall we still ditch the search of peace? ______________________________________ william rozar Addiction Recovery West Virginia